Thanks Bakers!

One of our bakers, Pat, received this thank you today....

I recently recieved the box of baked goods you sent and wanted to express my deepest gratitude. My unit is stationed at a small joint security station with a very prmitive mess hall, so your home cooking came as a huge treat. My soldiers send their regards and thanks aswell. Thank you very much for the nice letter and kind words. I cant tell you how nice it is to recieve such support from back home. Iam also Catholic, so your prayers are also greatly appreciated--please tell your church thank you for me--it really means alot to me. God bless.

Sincerely,

CPT Brian Ivany

Read About Us!!

A wonderful article in the Elyria Chronicle Telegram today on our group. Trying to find the link...

A Haiku for the Bakers

One of OHBakes bakers received this haiku from one of her son's friends. HAD to pass it on!

Far away from home
Feelings of family seem near
When I taste cookies
M.S.

Email from Afghanistan

We recently received this email from one of our soldiers, Ryan.

"Thank You very much for your support. It's boxes like this that keep our morale up during rough times which a frequent over here. Our living conditions are not the greatest , 17 soldiers to a tent. And our heating and AC rarely work. We shower in tents and eat chow in tents, there are no hard structures like they have in Iraq. Afghanistan is a very dirty, rough, and hasty environment, but we are getting the job done. We dont love violence but we will do whatever is necessary to eradicate the Taliban and liberate the Afghani people. They are a very good a loyal people whom are under privelaged, poor, and un-educated. We are changing their opinions of the Western World and showing them what life is like when you are free. We are showing this war torn country that people do care about them and they are rtesponding very well to us. I cannot tell you about my mission because the Government classified it as SECRET, but I can tell yo that we are bringing the fight to the Taliban everyday, and we are winning the hearts of the Afghan people. Thanks again for your support, it is pople like you that give us a sweet reminder of why we fight. This has been the craziest time of my life. I have gone from the college classroom where I was learning about Finance to a warzone where everyday my life is in a constant danger. I cannot describe my feelings in words, but I can tell you that even though this is really hard and some day's have brought the most pain physically and emotionally that I have ever felt, I am still glad to be doing what I am doing and wouldnt have it any other way. I signed up because I have lived the perfect American life with the perfect American people so there is no reason why I should not give a little back to my country. Your support is much appreciated.

Thank You

-Spc. Ryan"

A Little Blurb...

....mentioned in the Sun News.

This Is WHY We Do What We Do!!

Dear Bakers,
My son, Ryan told me just emailed me to tell you how much they all appreciated the cookies and brownies you sent.
The soldiers in his unit have been working very hard. They are not on a base and so the food has been pretty poor to this point! Sometimes they get back to their camp and there is no food for them. They were all excited to receive the good homemade food you sent.
Thank you for baking for the MP 447th unit!
Sincerely,
Penny and Tom

A Father's Thank You

Thanks again to you & your team for baking all those wonderful cookies which came to my Son, Russ in Afganistan. He sure appreciated all those wonderful goodies that he received.

Just wanted to let you know, he home Safe now. My Wife & I went to Raleigh, NC & met his Plane that came in from the Far East. He arrived on Jan 13, 2010. He was really beat, and the time zones with approximately 11 hours difference between here & there.

Again, Thanks & God Bless

Joe

Martha Gives Shipping Tips

More Families Send Thanks!

Dear Baking Gals,

Ben has received your cookies! We just wanted to thank you again. He plans on writing you a thank you when he gets his leave the end of Jan., but he asked me if I would let you know that he had received them. Have a blessed holiday, and thanks again for your kindness!

Sarah

Also from Joe (the father of Russ)
"......THANK YOU VERY MUCH for making his Christmas very tasty.........

You guys sure do a wonderful job for the Troops. Thanks again.

God Bless & Merry Christmas & Happy New Year." Joe

Thanks from Jim's Family

I’m Jan and your group sent cookies to my Jim this month.(November Group 3) I can’t tell you how thrilled he was to receive them!

He received 3 or 4 boxes at the beginning of the month. Then he had to go out on some missions up in the mountains. At that time, he took a turkey and fixings plus a box of “his home made” cookies to share with his soldiers. As this group was far up in the mountains, they were sure they would not have a Thanksgiving dinner let alone ‘real” cookies.

Upon his return to base camp, he found several more boxes of cookies. He called his wife to tell her about them. She said it was the first time in a long time she heard laughter in their conversation.

Your thoughtfulness brings much joy to these soldiers and their families. God bless you and all the bakers working on your project.

Sincerely,

Jan

Matt and His Family Send Thanks!!

From Matt (Our December soldier-Group 1)
"I just recieved your care package. I just wanted to say thank you so much it was really nice of you to take time out of your day and think of us! There are 41 Firefighters here with me who all wanted to say thanks! We are all enjoying the great baking you have sent here. Can you please inform anyone else who may have helped with this package that it has arrived and we are all very thankful!! Once again Thank you, your support really means alot to us!"

Matt Smith

Firefighter

Kirkuk, Iraq

From Matt's mom Betsy
"I just received an email from Matt about the wonderful cookies, slim jims, cakes, peanuts, etc... he said they have received care packages before from military support groups but this was so much better then they have ever received. He wanted to know if I knew who sent them since the [some of the] boxes were from Westlake, so close to home. .......I too can not thank you enough. It brings tears to my eyes to think how very thoughtful you are to think of my Matt. I know how much this means to him, not being able to be home for the holidays. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart."

Our Baking Gals Get an Award!

Scott and his unit were kind enough pass on their appreciation to our bakers!!!
It reads, "In recognition of your generous contributions to 1-137th Delta Company Assault Helicopter battalion. We greatly appreciate your support to our Troops in the fight. Your thoughtfulness has brought an outlet to many service members as they serve away from their families and homes. We are proud to serve the wonderful citizens of out nation."
Thank you Scott!! It's our pleasure.

We have heard from Becky, the mom of one of our August soldiers, Matt Perrings. Matt called and said to tell everyone thank you for the cookies. He was so surprised and got so many that his unit enjoyed also and sends thanks. Matt has been promoted to Sgt. and he is to finish this tour in December and should be home for a few weeks , hopefully on Christmas.

Also from the parents of Kevin Quinn, one of our October airmen comes word that Kevin and his fellow servicemen were thrilled with the packages. He was able to share with others at a distant outpost. His dad said as one of a few Air Force on an Army base, the cookies made him a popular guy!

Baking Gals Featured in Taste of Home Magazine

Read about our national group in Taste of Home!

Thanks

...... what you and all of the bakers do means so much to these guys. It's just the feeling that they get when they receive these cookies and it reminds them of home......

.....Thank you and everyone so much for thinking of Chris. Your hard work just means everything to these men and women......

All the best,

Karen Bragg

A Soldier's Mom Thanks you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Baking Gal's of Ohio :^D

My son, Marine Corporal Tyler Kantorowski was one of your featured soldiers for the month of June.
Tyler is in Iraq and is part of the CLB-4 Combat Engineer Division.
He called me on Monday (8/10) and was so overwhelmed with gratitude for the 8 boxes of cookies he received that day, he told me one of the rules is when you receive a package you have to empty it from the box and take the contents out immediately and put them into a plastic bag and burn the box with all addresses that it was packaged in. He said he couldnt believe it, EIGHT boxes in one day, and 3 of the ladies had packaged their goods together in one box so that was 10 bakers and dozens and dozens of cookies. He said the boxes were all dated June, the most current with a date of June 20th - so since they have been on the road working these packages took 7-10 weeks to catch up with him. He said he copied down as many names as he could before the boxes and packaging were taken away to be burned and wanted to give a heartfelt shout out to: ...
all the ...wonderful bakers that singled him out and made his life a lot brighter that day and many days to follow before the sweets ran out.

Ty said he was immediately surrounded by all the guys looking to see what he had received and what he was sharing with them all. Tyler said it was so wonderful to have a little taste of home and they made great snacks to fill their pockets with out on the road.

Ladies, I tear up when I think of all of you baking for our troops and especially all the prayers that are sent up in their names. Thank you all. Thank you for making my son your Marine for June and for all the prayer directed right at him. Thank you for all your time and all the love and support that went into every batch of every baked good sent. Every day is such a struggle and without FAITH in our DEAR LORD I truly don't think I could have made it thus far, in fact I know I couldnt have. So thank you. :^D This Marine Mami continues to feel so very blessed and very proud of my son and all our military men and women.
Here are a few pics of Ty and his guys. (Tyler is always the tallest one out of the group) :^D

http://www.spiritisup.com/prayerforsoldiers.html

Cheryl Kantorowski

Our Soldiers Share!

One of our bakers, Marilyn, forwarded this email to me. It shows a little how our group works.
Ma'am,
I just want to thank you very much for your cookies that you sent. One
of my fellow Captains, CPT Tony Cox, shared his care package with me and
the cookies are so good!!!!
I appreciate you taking the time to do that for the Soldiers.
With Great Respect,
Nelson
3rd Brigade Combat Team

Soldier Thank You

My name is Tony Cox .... I just wanted to thank you for the cookies I received a couple days ago. They were honestly some of the best cookies I've ever had! My soldiers and I love them. (Or, I should say, loved them... they were gone pretty quickly.) The funny thing is that since they were sitting in our mail container outside, the packages were still warm when they got to us, so it was almost like they just came out of the over when they got to us!

Thanks again from me and my team.

All the best,

Tony Cox

Soldier Thank You

Dear Operation Baking Gals,

I would like to take this time the thank the Operation Baking Gals for the recent delivery of cookies to Eric Augustine. I can’t even explain to you how this has really picked up his spirits while deployed. It seems that he has been labeled the cookie man on the ship. This is the first time Eric has been away from home so your thoughts and gifts of cookies has been greatly appreciated. Please tell those other men and women who are involved in this project that the Augustine family has greatly appreciated your tasty treats and thoughts of those who are serving abroad. We keep all of you in our prayers.

Respectfully,

John, Denise and Jamie Augustine

Love You More Than You Know....

That's the title of a new book by Janie Reinart and Mary Anne Mayer. Subtitled Mothers' Stories About Sending Their Sons and Daughters to War, it has the essays of 45 mothers of U.S. service men and women, mostly from Ohio, who open their hearts and share what it feels like when your son or daughter leaves home to fight a war. A portion of the proceeds for sales of this book will be donated to ReMind.org, a Bob Woodruff Foundation initiative and to the Semper Fi Injured Marines Fund.

Gloria Frombach, the mother of our December soldier, Matt, has eloquently told her story. If you click here, it will take you to a link to the book and you can get a free sample of Gloria's essay on pg 44.
Reading these stories gives us insight to the sacrifice families like this are making every day.